4 ms·
Wikipedia is very well funded, but not, as this video might make you believe, by large donations from the likes of Google and Amazon. While these donate the occ
by akolbe 4y ago
Wikipedia is very well funded, but not, as this video might make you believe, by large donations from the likes of Google and Amazon. While these donate the occasional million, most of the Wikimedia Foundation's $160 million revenue comes from small donations.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1e/Wikimedia_Foundation_FY2020-2021_Audit_Report.pdf#page=5 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/1/1e/Wikim...
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2020-21_Report https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising/2020-21_Report
Moreover, it's not a question of "keeping Wikipedia running" – the Wikimedia Foundation is taking more than enough money for that. Revenue has increased every year of the Wikimedia Foundation's existence, and it had (including endowment growth) a total surplus of nearly $90 million in its 2020/21 financial year, as well as hundreds of millions in reserves:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2022-06-26/Special_report https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Financial_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Financial...
In fact, the success of Wikipedia fundraising is such that by now, many Wikipedia volunteers feel that fundraising emails asking people to donate money "to keep Wikipedia online", "ad-free", or "independent", are grossly misleading and unethical:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28proposals%29#Review_of_English_Wikimedia_fundraising_emails https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28prop...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32713978 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32713978
- fortran77 4y agoAnd you know that because you read it on Wikipedia?
- akolbe 4y ago:) I know that because I've read the Foundation's tax returns and audited financial statements that the figures and discussions in Wikipedia are based on. See also: https://washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/02/wikipedia-has-a-ton-of-money-so-why-is-it-begging-you-to-donate-yours/ https://washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/12/02/... https://dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ https://dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundraising/ The Foundation has 5 times as much money today as it did at the time of the Washington Post report.